Hollywood returning to Taunton? Bruce Willis film inquiries

The Silver City could be the site of the next Bruce Willis movie, and that’s just fine by Mayor Charles Crowley.

Charles Winokoor

The Silver City could be the site of the next Bruce Willis movie, and that’s just fine by Mayor Charles Crowley.

Less than two months ago director Martin Scorsese filmed key scenes of his next cinematic release, “Ashecliffe,” on the grounds of Whittenton Mills, an industrial complex near Whittenton Pond.

Now word comes that a portion of the Paul A. Dever “campus” could be used for “The Surrogates,” a Touchstone Pictures project starring Willis and Ving Rhames (both of whom in 1993 worked together making Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.”)

“It’s still in the infant stages,” Crowley warned, referring to the meticulous process of considering the city as a movie location.

But he also acknowledges that less than a week ago he met personally with a woman representing Walt Disney Pictures. And he said he made it clear to her that he hopes they do in fact choose Taunton.

“I told her ‘Whatever I can do let me know,’” Crowley said.

The movie’s plot outline — according to Internet Movie Database — is described as a futuristic tale of human interaction via surrogate robots, murders occurring among the robots, and a cop (Willis) who leaves his home for the first time in years to investigate the case.

When Paramount Pictures filmed parts of “Ashecliffe” at Whittenton Mills they negotiated a rental agreement with David Murphy, president of Jefferson Development Partners which owns the property.

But Dever property is not privately owned. Because the state has jurisdiction over land that eventually could become part of the Myles Standish Industrial Park, it will be up to the Division of Capital Asset Management to approve any such deal.

Dick Shafer, executive director of the Taunton Development Corporation, confirmed that the land in question is part of the park’s future plans for Phase IV development.
Shafer said the 154-acre site, with its empty dormitory-style buildings and underground tunnels — dating back to the 1940s when it was part of Camp Myles Standish, a U.S. Army embarkation and POW camp — is suitably desolate and gloomy for a movie about robots and murder.

The mayor is anything but gloomy. Another movie, he said, will mean more positive publicity for the city and more revenue for nearby businesses, especially restaurants.
Crowley said during the filming of “Ashecliffe” Benjamin’s Restaurant on Bay Street, in particular, “made a killing” once director Scorsese and his close associates adopted it as their restaurant of choice here.

Julie Sprague, executive director of the non-profit Heart of Taunton, said she’d heard Whittenton Pizza on Whittenton Street also did well as movie crew members took out orders for lunch.

Movie-making has ramped up considerably in the state since last July, when Gov. Patrick and the Legislature approved a more generous tax credit for companies filming here.

Sprague said if some of “The Surrogates” ends up being shot at Dever she would like her downtown district to somehow benefit as well, despite the fact that the two are not within walking distance of each other.

She said she is prepared, if opportunity knocks, to work with the Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce to launch a marketing campaign informing the movie crew of historical sights and businesses downtown.

It would help, she added, if the set for the Mostow/Willis movie was not quite as closed off as was Scorsese’s.

“It was a very closed set,” Sprague said. “You literally had to be the pope to get in.”

Crowley, however, said he understands that “security is an important concern” for any production company responsible for making a big-budget movie. “We want them to feel conformable so that they’ll come back,” he said.